Red a Hogwarts Love Story
by Sophias-scribe
Summary: new character Safrea is stuck in a love triangle but who with...
1. Chapter 1

Stepping into the carriage in my forth year was great, I had loved Hogwarts since the moment I had stepped into the great hall in my first year, back then I was a little shy girl who was walking timidly with the rest of the new first years. I waited, scared as ever in the great hall watching as each person went up to the stool sat down and got shown to their house "gryffindoor" "ravenclaw!" shouted the hat one at a time the people before me stepped down from the stool and headed to their seats on the tables of different colours. "Safrea James" called the tall, thin scary looking woman who i would later know as mrs magonagal, I gulped and shuffled towards the stool as Mrs magonagle placed the hat on my head i closed my eyes and pleaded that I would be placed, i was terrified, at the time, that i would be some sort of a failure and not be placed at all. The sorting hat whispered in my ear "another James 'eh? I remember your mother, a witch with great potential, she would have made an excellent slytherin but i believe she made a much better ravenclaw. As for your father, a gryffindor if i remember correctly, a great mind, a good friend of James potter if i remember correctly, perhaps you and his son will get along as well... GRYFFINDOR!" he shouted in my ears, and he was right harry and i are very good friends. Now i get to see the first years file in at the beginning of every year, they always look the same, terrified and shy. You can usually pick out people to which house they will be in as well, "him over there, the one with the black hair, she will be slytherin and the blond one next to her I'm betting that he is her brother but he looks more like a ravenclaw." said Harry, i laughed "yeah your right, the one in the blue sneakers with the ginger hair, she's one of us don't you think?" i said, "yeah like us in more than one way hey Freya?" said Ron holding his hand up so that i could high five him, Ron and i were linked by our pride for the red hair we shared, admittedly mine was redder than his as i had died my ginger hair red. It turned out, as usual that we were right, the new girl was called Leah and was the image of what Ginny had looked like in her first year which, of course, Ginny loved to hear since she was very pretty.

After dinner Dumbledore stood up to make his start of the year speech, you could feel all the first years sit up and stare at the tall grandfatherly figure stood at the front of the hall behind his eagle shaped stand. " Well now that we're all settled in and sorted, I'd like to make an announcement. This castle will not only be your home this year but home to some very special guests as well. You see, Hogwarts has been chosen to host a legendary event: The TriWizard Tournament. The Tournament brings together three schools for a series of magical contests. From each school a single student is selected to compete. Now let me be clear. If chosen, you stand alone. And trust me when I say, these contest are not for the faint-hearted. But more of that later." the hall erupted into a haze of chatter "triwizard tournament?" said Ron "wicked" said Fred and George who had already started arguing about which one of them was going to win. Dumbledoor was waiting for the noise to hush down and when it did enough for him to start again he began to talk and the hall fell silent again "Your attention please. I'd like to say a few words. Eternal Glory. That is what awaits the Student who wins the TriWizard Tournament. But to do this the Student must survive three tasks. Three extremely dangerous tasks. To explain all this we have the Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, Mr. Bartemus Crouch..." As soon as anyone heard Crouches name the chatter began again this time because we weren't in the least interested in what he had to say, well apart from the guys who were horrified to hear that they weren't old enough to compete, eventually Crouch stopped talking and dumbledore came back up to the stand, silence fell for the third time that evening this time he stepped towards something that I hadn't noticed until now which was covered in a cloth, dumbledore pulled out his wand and flicked it so that the cloth sped into the air and revealed a shimmering golden cup with a blue flame hovering inside it, "The Goblet of Fire! Anyone wishing to submit themselves to the tournament need only write their name upon a piece of parchment and throw it in the flame before this hour on Thursday night. Do not do so lightly! If chosen, there's no turning back. As from this moment, The Triwizard Tournament has begun!" the whole hall erupted into cheers and some of the guys in the year above had already taken out pieces of paper from their pockets and had started writing out their names with ready-ink quills.

That night in the common room the main topic of conversation was the triwizard tournament and the arrival of the baubatons girls and durmstrang guys, the only people not raving about the mayhem were a small group of people sat my the fire in a circle Included in this circle were Harry, Hermione, Ron (who was in fact over the top annoyed that he couldn't compete but didn't want to sit on his own so was instead sulking on the couch, Leah and me. Harry, Hermione and Leah who had become smitten with harry were talking about their lesson timetables and harry was trying to work out how much time he had for quiditch. I on the other hand was sat on the couch with Ron, I was pretty bored and shattered after today's random outbursts of excitement from the girls about the durmstrangs and guys trying to look cool around the baubattons. Ron and i had been friends since the first year and to be honest I was finding it hard not to notice that he was becoming much less weedy every time i saw him, his arms were now much thicker than they had been and his chest had lost the soft poutiness it had once held and was now more of a firm pillow for my tired head, this was one thing that Ron and i had never had a problem with, proximity for some reason we were just naturally comfortable together and i loved that. There was something strange about that night though because i blinked and every one disappeared "hey sleepy" said Ron to me with one of his sweet cheesy grins, I rubbed my eyes, realising that i must have fallen asleep on him "what time is it?" i asked "quarter to eleven" he said stroking a piece of hair out of my eyes, i realised at that moment than we were totally alone. the fire was mow burnt down to simmering embers and the room was dark with only a few beams of moon light coming in through the window, it was, admittedly very romantic, which unfortunately did not help me to justify what happened next. I sat up, my hand was still against his chest and when i sat up i found that i didn't really want to move it, I looked up at Ron who was watching me with his blue eyes and suddenly i wasn't myself anymore my cheeks were heating up and through my tired eyes i could see his face in the fire light, it was chiseled, and handsome, Ron had grown up and he wasn't a boy anymore. I wasn't a little girl anymore, not a first year with ginger hair and freckles i was now a forth year with fiery red hair and green eyes with smooth well moisturised skin. I couldn't help it, i had no control, i reached up pressed my hand lightly to his cheek and kissed him.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

I was slightly surprised to find that he kissed back, i suppose i shouldn't have been but i always thought that he and Hermione were... well you know what i mean. There was another problem with this of so romantic moment, Draco... when we finally drew away from each other I wasn't sure what to do or what to say, Ron's face had gone as red as I had ever seen it and i couldn't help but think that what i had just done was a mistake. I mean I loved Ron but did i love him like that? Suddenly i was finding it very hard to breathe and I couldn't think of anything to say. But i couldn't just leave him, not like that, with no explanation and expectations of something more, I yawned remembering how late it was. He seemed to find his voice "It's late" was all he managed, I nodded not sure i could speak yet, moving my self away from him and just sitting next too him. Eventually I decided that it would be easier to talk about it when my eyes weren't dragging down. "good night Ron" i said, and kissed him on the cheek. It would have been a pretty perfect moment, if i had not been so confused as to what had just happened.  
Crookshanks woke me up the next morning, sitting on my feet like he liked to and trotting up to my hand and licking it. 'Monday' I thought scratching behind crookshanks ears, eventually i got up and walked to the bathroom, it must have been pretty early because the rest of the beds were still lumpy with sleeping bodies, i had never needed much sleep, 6 hours and i was sorted, it was helpful if i had some homework that needed finishing. As it was the first day of the new term I figured that today I would use the time to make myself look good. In year 4 we were aloud to wear normal clothes under our robes so i had some outfit choices to make. I put on the shower and turned it up until the hot water was softly tingling on my back and washed the sleep out of my body and the mess out of my hair. Hermione had taught me a quick dry spell that I had been looking forward to using all summer, i mean hair dryers were OK but after having my hair immediately dry it seemed a bit feeble. I curled my bright red hair into flaming tendrils that framed my square, still slightly puppy chubby face. I used my darkest kohl liner to line my eyes and slicked on some mascara, a little concealer, some face powder and i was ready to get dressed. After a couple of minutes of deliberation i had decided on a two tone black and pink dress with black flats and a pink pair of knee length socks. I looked in the full length mirror one last time, drew the curtain to my bed, slicked on some lip balm and skipped down the stairs into the common room. That's when the events of the night before hit me and for a moment i felt a deep wave of regret surge over me, how was i going to tell him it didn't mean anything, i mean Ron was my friend and it wasn't like i wasn't attracted to him, but there was draco and i had been working hard to get him to notice me, Finaly i had managed to convince my friends in gryfindor that i wasn't insane for liking draco and i had managed to convince draco that i wasn't insane for being a gryfindor. At that moment my stomach grumbled giving me the perfect excuse to leave the common room and make my way to the dinning room for breakfast. I pushed Ron out of my head and started humming a song that i had been listening to on the train the day before, for some reason i was feeling confident and was enjoying the slightly light feeling i had dancing around the near deserted halls of Hogwarts, the painting still slumbered around me and the ones that didn't welcomed my singing around the corridors, they had become used to it in the last 4 years. I was one of the oldest of the first years to come to hogwarts, I was 12 when i came which wasn't all that strange for me as i had always been one of the eldest everywhere, my 12 birthday was exactly 3 days into term, which meant that i would actually be 16 in 3 days. As always i took a little detour on my way to breakfast, taking a wonder through the more colourful paintings and avoiding the crowded corridors, i had my route planned out perfectly, it had been the same for the last 2 years. weeping witch passage, second door on the top floor west corridor, behind the purple tapestry, "hello Freya" I could recognise that silky voice anywhere and i was so glad to hear it "Draco!" i said hugging my old friend, it was an odd combination being friends with ron, harry AND draco but still, we were childhood friends. Our parents had met at school just like us, the gryfindoor, ravenclaw and slytherin it was strange back then too but then again Mrs malfoy didn't have a problem with strange even if Draco's dad refused to be in the same room as us. Narcissa always maintained that she had the right to her own friends and was not limited by slytherins although perhaps by class. "Draco Malfoy i swear to god if you keep jumping up on me like that someday I'm just going to end up jinxing you into oblivion." i said still hugging him. He, like ron and I, had grown significantly since the first year, although his hair was still as bleach blond as ever and he still insisted on wearing a suit jacket everywhere, there was no denying that he was a handsome guy, his features were soft but distinguished and his gray eyes which Hermione always referred to as cold were such a warm moving silver that i sometimes swore they were molten steel. Either way he was gorgeous. Eventually i stopped hugging him and we stood in front of each other, he still had his hand on my waist and i could have sworn that it was burning a hole through my dress "you look gorgeous" he said I couldn't help but blush "thanks" i muttered. He smiled one of his mischievous lob sided grins "come on lets get you something to eat" with his hand still on my waist we walked through the silent corridors.

When we got down to the main hall breakfast was already piled on to each of the tables and there were a few early arrivals in the great hall including hermione who shook her head as i sat down opposite draco, one thing i always liked about breakfasts in hogwarts was that they didn't have the house banners up so anyone from any house could sit any where they liked. I instinctively picked up a croissant and started to spread butter on it, Draco did the same but with chocolate spread. "so how's Narcissa?" I always felt a bit strange calling his mum that but he didn't seem to mind and Narcissa always insisted that i should call her by her first name. "mum is fine, i mean she doesn't really like whats been going on, she is afraid about us getting into trouble although I'm not exactly sure with which side." this is one thing that the others would never understand, although Draco was torn between the world of dark and evil i don't think he could ever go all the way, plus he is smart, if it one were more power full than the other, if one gave him a better chance of survival he would go for that one, unless, that is, it would effect either of his parents, they spoilt him rotten but there was nothing that Draco craved more than his parents approval and pride, i am sure that he would do anything for them and truth be told that frightened me slightly. Just as he was telling me about his holiday and the small family quiditch game that his parents held every year, in walked Ron, Harry and Leah. Harry gave me a sad smile and Leah, not yet understanding the significance of mine and Draco's friendship waved, Ron however did exactly as i had feared he would he scowled, which to be honest he did every time he saw me and Draco together but it wasn't aimed towards only Draco this time, he was deliberately burning his eyes into me. "shit!" i breathed which of course Draco heared "what?" he said looking in the direction that i was "Oh, Potter and weasel" I gave him a stern look "sorry weasly" i nodded. he sighed "dare i ask what happened?" i smiled weakly, "just a difficult start to the term is all." I looked back at Draco, he looked genuinely concerned all though a little smug at the same time. I looked at him for a moment then smiled slightly and said " do you have any free periods today?" He smiled "yeah, 5Th after potions, do you want to meet up?" I smiled again, wider and sincerely this time "how about we meet at the Oak on that hill by the lake? we could make a little fire and i could bring marshmallows then we could catch up. Is that to Corney?" He smiled, properly this time, not a grin, just a smile "I think it sounds just Corney enough" I melted in my core.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Three days later I was in a potions lesson, although of course because of my being a gryfindor snape despised me but due to my attachment to Draco he had a certain amount of respect for me and occasionally even awarded me house points, although he refused to say "ten points for gryfindor" so instead he would say "ten points for Miss James" which although slightly embarrassing was also quite good for my ego. It was the only lesson in which i actually sat with draco and it was the only lesson in which Harry, Hermione and Ron would not complain for me doing so. Although they hated Draco with a passion they did like the idea that he could be used to our advantage. It was this lesson which tipped the scale slightly with Draco. Ron and I had had a long and slightly awkward conversation about our little incident and had decided that it was best if neither of us spoke about it ever again, since neither of us had told anyone yet so we agreed to keep it that way. Although as any difficult situation tends to it made having a normal conversation with Ron difficult and we had become separated and rarely talked, it seemed that the healing time would be a couple of weeks, which meant that if Harry and Hermione weren't around i would generally be in the company of Draco Malfoy. Over the time that I had become a lesser acquaintance of Ron I had become very close to Draco and over the past few days we had spent most of our free time together which made me feel a little bad for Crabbe and Goyle who seemed to just wonder around aimlessly without Malfoy to lead them. They reminded me of those little robots that you get in the muggle world which can walk around but as soon as they get to a wall they just keep crashing into it and need you to pick them up and put them in the right direction to make them work. When i told this to Draco, we were sat in a tree that overlooked the lake and he needed an explanation as to "what is a robot?" but once i had explained it he laughed so hard i thought he was going to fall out of the tree. We had only been back for 3 days and yet we had managed to; have 2 picnics by the lake, fly a broom onto the roof of the castle and throw stones into the womping willow at one point we also used the room of requirement as a cinema, which Draco didn't really understand but he liked it all the same. During Potions on Thursday we were working together to make a wit-sharpening potion which seemed to be already sharpening our wit's just by the smell, I could even feel how far behind me the next person walking past was before i heard them, I was also feeling curiously light and worry-less "what is this potion supposed to do exactly?" I asked draco who was adding the armadillo bile to finish off the potion in a flurry of purple smoke. "Its supposed to calm nerves and give confidence to the drinker" he said then looked at me and smiled. "Mr Malfoy, Miss James I see you are the first to finish, ten points to the both of you" I could have sworn that i saw him smile but that may have been my imagination, Draco was standing looking directly at snape and i was surprised to find that so was I, my usual nervousness around him seemed to fade with this potion nearby, Snape leaned down stirred the potion with his wand, sniffed it and this time he grinned, snape never smiled but around Draco he allowed a grin, "as you two have finished you may clear up and leave early." he then turned to Harry and Ron who were working behind me and had only just managed to turn their potion from red to blue "Potter! Weasly! due to your measly efforts you will put away all of your AND Mr Malfoy and Miss James' ingredients and equipment once they have cleaned them. I felt quite sorry for them since the cleaning was the easy part as all we had to do was pour the potion into the sink and use a simple vanish spell to clean off any dregs. It took us pretty much exactly 3 minutes and then collecting our books we stepped into the dungeon corridor.

Draco was smiling with more confidence than usual which was hard for him considering that he was always pretty confident. With my new found confidence i was finding it hard not to stare at him "so what do you want to do?" I said coming out more flirty than i usually would, Draco stood for a moment and looked out of the window then an idea seemed to strike him and he said "come with me." and took my hand. Although we had been friends for a long time he had never held my hand and it made me jump a little as he wrapped his fingers in between mine and power walked down the corridors and out the back entrance to the school where the passage came out near the lake and next to a patch of trees which we had eaten chocolate covered strawberries and marshmallow butterflies a few days before. He then let go of my hand and jumped into the first tree he climbed up 3 branches then lent against the one next to it and reached down his hand, I looked at him and grinned, I took his hand and he lifted me as i took each step up the tree making it feel more like floating than pulling up my body weight, i hadn't realised quite how strong he had become. "I used to sit up here when i was in first year, its great because you can see everyone below you and they never know that you are there." I had the picture of a little Draco climbing this tree and couldn't help but smile a little. Up until that point I had been looking at Draco, I was so close that i could see every fleck of blue and gold in his eyes, and every lose hair on his forehead. Then he turned and looked out of the tree and i did the same, the view was beautiful and I couldn't help but catch my breath which caused me to wobble backwards a little, at which point Draco wrapped his arm around my waist. "Yeah the view isn't bad is it." he said, and i looked at him, he was already looking at me and he looked completely calm. His arm was still around my waist and we were so close now that all i would have to do it lean forward and we would be kissing, but i didn't because as always i was too scared, instead he did. He lent forward and kissed me.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Kisses are never what you imagine them to be right? wrong. I don't know whether it was the shock, or the fact that I had been waiting so long for it to happen, but when he finally did kiss me I was a puppet to my instincts, I lent forward, wrapped my arms around his neck, pushed him against the trunk of the tree and just let the sparks that were running all over my body guide me. When we eventually came up for air i felt like i should say something but i wasn't sure what. It seemed that Draco had already thought of what to say "Do you want to go to the yule ball with me?" He said leaning his forehead against mine and breathing the question to me. I smiled and sighed "yes" I said and lent forward to take one more delicious taste of his lips. My fingers were running through his hair and his hands were holding me tight against him, I felt light and warm and safe. I could hear hermione's voice in my head "safe? with a slytherin?" which was what she actually said to me 4 hours later while i was sat with my knees curled against me in front of the fire telling her about the post-potions events. After the tree we walked through the grounds towards the great hall, he kept his arm around my waist the whole way and when we got to the doors of the front hall he stopped, pushed me against the door and kissed me once and ran his thumb over my nose I smiled and flattened down his hair where i had run my fingers before, then we walked off towards our separate tables.

The hall was full of the buzzing of voices, talking about the imminent triwizard tournament, the goblet of fire was stood flaming in the centre of the hall and as dumbledoor walked up to it the room immediately fell deathly silent. "And now the moment you've all been waiting for, the champions selection!" he said and stepped towards the cup which flame turned blood red some of the baubattons gasped and fred and george huffed as they knew their name would not be chosen no matter how many attempts they had made to fool the age line and the goblet. The now red lit room held their breath as a piece of paper shot from the flame into the hands of Albus Dumbledore. He unfolded it carefully and read aloud "the durmstrang champion is..." the durmstrang table lent forward "viktor krum!" they all cheered loudly and the durmstrang champion as he moved to the front of the hall and was directed through a back door. The cheering stopped as another piece of paper shot from the flame "The champion from Beauxbatons... " the beauxbatons sat up straight making their thin bodies look tiny "Fleur Delacour" another cheer as another champion was led to the front and through the door. The room fell silent for the last time and all four tables of the hogwarts houses lent forward and held their breath, even hermione and I sat staring at that flame "The Hogwarts champion..." there was a moment that seemed to last forever and every person in the room lent the extra few feet forward, I looked at draco who glanced at me at the same time and we both looked back at Dumbledoor "Cedric Digory!" the hall burst into applause for the third time and the band started playing a fan fair, the flame in the goblet turned back to blue and flickered in the goblet. Dumbledore gave us a few minutes to calm down and was about to speak when the fire in the goblet turned blood red and started to spark it spat and sparked then shot up into the enchanted sky and spat out a forth piece of paper, the room was totally silent and this time there was less excitement in the air and more fright. dumbledore snatched the paper from the air and read the name under his breath which in the silent hall echoed "harry potter" Every face in the room turned towards the boy who lived, who was sat in between me and hermione. Harry looked terrified which was odd because Harry very rarely was scared of anything. Dumbledore then looked up and said loudly "Harry Potter" looking directly at him, harry didn't move he just sat there, frozen. "Oh for goodness sake harry!" whispered hermione shoving him off the bench so that he was standing on the cold marble floor. As he walked towards dumbledore the room began to get back its voice, "cheat!" someone shouted "liar" said another "he isn't even seventeen yet!" said a boy sat opposite me, I kicked him and looked back to harry. He walked up to dumbledore who scowled and pointed towards the door where the other contestants had exited. Harry walked to the door looked back at hermione, ron and me then dissapeared through the door. Dumbledore quickly dismissed us and followed harry through the door. "shit" I said under my breath as I walked with hermoine out of the hall. "do you think we should wait for him to come out?" I asked hermione who was wringing her hands and mumbling to her self so i assumed that i wouldn't get an answer out of her. I'm pretty sure that she didn't even notice when i was pulled to one side by Draco "you alright?" he said, still holding on to my hand. I was a little surprised as to the question as i expected something more along the lines of 'bloody famous potter' but i suppose he was more looking out for me than for harry. "yeah, uh I'm just a bit confused and worried i suppose." then i looked up at him and smiled "but I'm sure dumbledore will take care of it" Draco sighed, and i knew he wanted to say something scathing about dumbledore but he didn't. "you know i don't mind you being honest with me, I know that you don't like harry or dumbledore" he smiled and stroked a hair out of my face "yeah i might hate them but that doesn't mean that i have to hate you." I smiled and he kissed me. We walked to the stairs together and up to the first landing, his arm around my waist still. I stopped and turned to him "I'm going to wait for harry and make sure he's OK." I said, i saw a little drop of anger flit over his face but then he decided not to say anything and instead he said "OK. but i want a proper goodbye." he smirked and pulled me close to him. He kissed my neck them moved up to my mouth. His lips tasted like ice cream and toffee. I was lost in his arms, his tongue slipping across my teeth and his hands holding me close. My fingers running through his hair and my body moulding to his, standing lightly on my tiptoes. Eventually we broke apart and i ran my hand from his hair to the back of his neck, i sighed "bye." and he kissed me one last time, turned and left. I watched him leave then stood for a moment still looking in that direction. Slowly i turned to sit on the stairs. that was when i froze, Harry and Ron were stood at the bottom of the stairs, mouths slightly open and Harry looking shocked and Ron looking angry. "shit." I said for the second time that night.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

At that point ron walked straight past me as though i was one of the ghosts or the paintings who were nosily watching the tense moment in front of them. Harry had finally closed his mouth and was now walking towards me, "are you ok?" I asked harry keen to take the conversation away from the subject of me. Harry walked up to me and sat down on the step i was standing on. I sat down next to him and sighed "OK i know you don't exactly see eye to eye but put it this way, if Draco is with me, i can keep him out of trouble and away from you."

harry then surprised me by smiling "It's ok. really but you might need to talk to Ron. Although I don't think he is exactly on great terms with me either." he paused and looked down at his hands. "they say i have to compete, its the rules i don't have a choice." he said not looking at me.

"I hate to say it harry but you do realise that you are the boy who lived, and the triwizard tournament is famous for being exceptionally dangerous. You have to guess that if your name ended up in that cup, and you didn't put it there then..."

He looked up at me "then I have to watch my back, I know."

"Harry you do know that me and hermione and even Ron although he might not seem it now, are behind you, you don't always have to do these things alone." I said giving him a one armed hug. He smiled

"yeah, thanks." although there was something in his voice that told me he wasn't going to sleep well tonight.

Two days later Ron was still livid at harry and was acting as though i didn't exist half of the time and taking the piss the other half. "So does he bite?" he asked on Saturday at breakfast "you know like a snake. hiss!" he leaned forward and hissed, I hissed back and threw a bread roll at him. Harry was missing from breakfast that day as he was having it with the rest of the champions while the rules were being explained to them. Then later they were all having interviews with Rita Skita, a rather annoying and diabolical journalist from the daily profit. So the chances were that we wouldn't see him until he was up on the rocks fighting his dragon. As i had known he would Ron had helped harry out with the first task, although harry didn't really know that yet. Harry had thought that Ron had simply decided not to tell him which led to a rather awkward if very entertaining argument between them. Knowing that they would work it out eventually, i decided not to get involved. Hermione had been teaching Harry a couple of spells to help him at the tournament, but both Hermione and I were less than pleased that he was taking guidance from madd eye moody. He might have been a famous auror but we both agreed that there was something not quite right about him.

Finally the day of the tournament came. Hundreds of students, teachers and ministry officials flocked to the newly a converted area of the forbiden forest where in the place of the normal trees, and grass was a rugged terrain of rocks, surounded by raised seats, and in the centre was a golden egg on a slightly tarnished metal stand. Hermione, Ron and I sat in the front row of the barred seats, with a view right into the pit of the rock bed. About half an hour later the whole of the stadium jumped as a cannon fired from the competitors tent and a blue-gray dragon roared into view. At the other end of the stadium cedric digory stood looking fierce at which point most of the girls in the stands cheered loudly. The dragon lunged at Digory who turned, ran in the opposite direction and hid behind a boulder. The dragon followed him but it gave him enough time to come out from behind the boulder and cast a transfiguration spell on a rock which was perched at the top of the opposite end of the stadium. The boulder barked as its newly found Labrador form saw the dragon and began to run around in circles barking at it. the dragon swooped down on the Labrador which realising its certain peril whimpered and ran in the opposite direction. cedric at this point sprinted up the incline where the egg was nestled and grabbed it. Another cheer erupted from the stands, at which point the dragon turned and decided that he would much rather have human, breathing a blast of fire which from the other end of the stadium only managed to lick at Cedrics robes but it did set his arm alight, the pain did not show in his voice but his face crinkled in pain as he used his wand to put out the fire. Cedric returned to the tent after being awarded thirty eight points.

The next Dragon to appear from the rocks was a Green dragon which ron told us was a common welsh which made me laugh a little and hermione hit me on the arm and told me to stop being so immature. Fleur stepped out onto the terrain looking like a warrior princess in a light blue tailored and armoured robe. She stepped into the view of the dragon which roared and paced towards her, at which point fleur lifted up her wand, little finger pointed in the air and cast a spell in her tinkling french accented voice. The dragon dropped to the floor and closed its eyes. The crowd erupted into cheers and Fleur made her way towards the egg, lightly and carelessly. Through the cheering though she made the mistake of carelessly moving in front of the Welsh Green's mouth, at which point the dragon let out a low rumbling snore which shot a lazy but powerful blast of fire out of its nostrils, setting Fleur alight in a scream of pain and anguish. She Tried to roll it out on the floor but it did very little, eventually a team of teachers came onto the terrain where Dumbledore flicked his wand to put out the fire and she was carried off into the wing to have madam pomfrey heal her burns.

Krum was up next, at which point i stopped paying attention, hermione had become a bit of a fan of krum and no matter how much she tried to hide it, if there was any detail of his violent task that i wanted to know about she could explain it perfectly well.

Finally it was harry's turn. His dragon was disconcertingly big, it had a tainted, prickly golden hide and was much bigger and more vicious than the others had been. Harry stepped out onto the terrain looking petrified and pale. The dragon also seemed to be much faster than the others had been and as soon as harry stepped out ha had to jump down and run behind the closest boulder. He was now stood directly below our seats and the 3 of us Lent over the bar to stare down at harry, the dragon was angrily blowing great balls of fire at the boulder and harry was stood, breathing deeply and shockingly pale looking at the rock wall. He seemed to shake awake as hermione screamed at him "your wand harry! your wand!" harry looked up and nodded then screamed

"accio firebolt!" and ran as fast as he could up the slope towards the next crevice in the rock. I could see the fast moving line that was harry's broom shooting behind him, at which point i pointed and shouted "behind you harry!" he turned and stood up then jumped swiftly onto the approaching broom. It reared up in the sky as he pelted through the gray sky, the dragon, confused for a moment then roared and followed harry who then lent almost flat against his broom and sped towards the ground, just before he hit the rocky abis he pulled up and swiped across the floor, grabbing the golden egg and quickly drifting into the tent, still riding his broom.

The whole crowd, including ron cheered and 2 hours later there was a fully blown party going on in the gryfindore common room. By about 11pm it had even moved into the outside corridor where we had carried out some light chairs and a bunch of cushions and half of the common room was not sat in the hallway drinking cider and watching the tiny fireworks that fred and george had conjured into existence fly, aimlessly around the corridor.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Harry had become, if it was possible, even more of a star, although there were still some who were shouting things like "digory rules potter stinks!" the badges which had been on nearly every lapel last week had mysteriously vanished. It seemed that Harry's dramatic exit from the stadium the week before had become the main topic of conversation; the other was the contents of the golden egg. Harry had opened it briefly during the celebrations but the sound that protruded from it had been so horrific that he closed it right away and left it on the mantel piece of the common room. Some said that it was the cry of whatever was going to be fighting them next or that maybe it was in a different language (this was more Hermione's idea, but even she couldn't find anything that matched it. Ron had finally forgiven harry and was now comfortable enough to be around me, even though he refused to be near me if Draco was around. I was spending a lot more time with Hermione now as the Yule ball grew ever closer, Harry and Ron still didn't have dates where as Hermione had confided in me that the one and only Viktor Krum had asked her. The weekend before Christmas we were allowed into hogsmede, harry and Ron had been sent their robes already (much to Rons disliking) where as Hermione and I had been given a large amount of money to find our own dresses. There were two clothes shops in hogsmede, gladrags wizardwair and a new shop called wonder mizware which was a girls clothes shop selling exactly what we needed, Hermione said that they had probably heard about the tournament and opened it especially for the ball. The shop front was painted a bubblegum blue with white enchanted paper butterflies flying around the floaty dresses in the window. Inside, the walls were a pale blue on the bottom and white on the top. Some of the girls from our year were already wondering around inside. We walked through the aisles of dresses and collected a pile of possible each which elegantly floated into the changing rooms at the back. The first one I tried was a blue strapless dress, pretty enough but the clash with my hair was awful. The next was a bright red halter neck with tiny diamonds encrusted along the belt, it was fiery but didn't really flatter my body very much, the third was a white halter neck with tiny silver sequins that faded from the hem to the belt line, it had caught my eye in the window as it reminded me of rain running down a window. It was perfect; it made my hair stand out and looked perfectly elegant for a ball. Hermione had picked out several pastel coloured dresses in which she looked very good, but the second to last one was stunning, a pastel purple dress which flowed in tendrils to the floor which set off her curly hair perfectly, it was so perfect she just sent back the rest of the dresses without even trying the last one. We came out of the shop into the cold winter air and were met by parvati patil, it was strange to see her alone but we smiled and walked together. On the way back to the castle with our pink cloth bags in hand, Parvati asked whether Harry had a date for the ball when we told her that he didn't she was immediately happier and muttering something about overdue homework ran on ahead of us to the castle. The two of us laughed and sped up ourselves as the wind picked up.

When we got back to the dormitory the room was filled with people trying on dresses, experimenting with hair styles and testing out the new "self-make" magical make up kits. Hermione and I were two of only about 5 girls in the common room when we got downstairs after putting the things away. I was pretty tired after the morning in the cold and sat by the fire for a while sipping hot chocolate and talking to Hermione. "So?" she said at one point when the conversation had run dry, "so what?" I said. "So what's going on with you and Draco?" she asked giving me a little cheeky grin over her mug. "Going on? Ha-ha that's a good way to put it, well so far we have been spending a lot of time alone. I like that I mean why wouldn't I? But..." she smiled "but you wish that everyone could just accept each other, right?" I nodded. At that point she downed the rest of her hot chocolate and pulled me up off of the couch. "What are you doing?" I said as she pulled me out into the hall. "Making friends with a slytherin" she sighed and pulled me forward.

Hermione pulled me down two corridors before I stopped "he won't be in the common room." I said before she could argue as to her reasoning. she looked puzzled "he won't?" she said I smiled "no he won't" I took her hand and pulled her back the way we came, then pulled one of the tapestries to one side and pressed the slightly darker brick in the middle, the secret passage opened up and we both stepped inside before it closed. "Every day at about 6 he goes for a walk through the halls, harry might have the marauders map but there are other ways to find secrets in Hogwarts" Hermione smiled and then stopped "wait how do you know about the marauders map?" I hadn't meant to give this much away but I suppose I had no choice then. "At home, we have the original version that they did, its incomplete but..." I trailed off Hermione was staring at me as though I had gone mad "you have a copy of the marauders map? How?" I sighed "my dad. He was really good friends with James Potter, you don't believe that they would SHARE a copy did you? There were 5 copies made apparently. My dad had one plus the other four marauders. Only he only got the first copy there was some sort of fight, between my dad and James so he never got the finished copy." Hermione looked at me for a moment then smiled "seems that you and harry have more in common than we knew." I smiled and we carried on down the corridor. "If I remember right the last time he went for his wonder he was looking at third west." she looked at me confused. "We split it up into bits and search that area. We have um nine maybe ten sectors left this term then we can start on the next floor." I was just finishing this sentence when I saw him. He was stood in front of a window looking at a portrait of Ethereld the ever ready. They were arguing, which is not uncommon as Ethereld was famous in his time for randomly cursing people and insulting people for the fun of it. "take it back or I swear I will throw you into the whomping willow" screamed Draco "Oh you wouldn't be able to lift me with those bony arms, your father couldn't. He was a weak little ferret too!" retorted the painting. I knew that any mention of his father would set him off so as soon as I heard it I ran towards him getting ready to hold him back, but he already had his wand out and just before I reached him he shouted "confringo!" the painting exploded into a million splintered pieces and the wall behind it rumbled as some of the stone fell from the place where the painting had hung. Draco and I were knocked off our feet. while in mid-air I heard Hermione scream and couldn't help but picture her being pinned to the floor under a collapsed roof or unconscious with her head bleeding, I suddenly felt a violent jerk of anger spread from the top of my head and ooze down. Then I realised it wasn't just hate. It was blood. I gasped then slipped into darkness.


	7. Chapter 7

07/04/2010 02:52:00

"you fucking twat! I'm going to kill you!" I yelled at Malfoy. How could he do that to them? I can't believe I ever let Frea anywhere near that jerk. Harry was holding me back but I could tell he was pissed off just as much as I was. Malfoy for once actually said nothing. He didn't retort, didn't smirk, didn't hit me. He just walked towards the hospital wing. "Ron just leave it alright?" said Harry. I stared at him in disbelief "you're defending him? after what he did to Hermione and Frea!" Harry just shook his head at me and said "I hate him Ron you know that but this is the first time I have seen Malfoy show any sort of emotion. I'm not going to get hooked up on torturing him, I think Frea is doing that fine on her own."

Walking into the hospital wing that day was possibly the most painful thing I have ever had to do. I actually thought I would never be able to close my eyes ever again for fear of seeing that sight again. Hermione was on the bed closest to me. Her face was swollen and her arm was lying limply off the side of the bed. Krum and his stupid pumpkin head was already there he hadn't noticed us walk into the room until Harry spoke "are they going to be ok?" he was asking Madame Pomfrey this but it made Krum look up, at which point he saw Malfoy. The look on Krum's face was one of pure undiminished anger. He lunged at Malfoy, pinning him against the floor and shouting at him in Hungarian started punching him in the face. He only got two strikes before someone shouted experiliamus and he went flying into the wall. Malfoys face was gleefully bloody and he was holding his gushing nose and squirming on the floor. Madame Pomfrey lifted him onto the bed next to Frea. It was only at that point that I looked at her properly. The shock knocked me off my feet and into the chair which had appeared just in time to catch me. Her face was now cleaned of blood which showed the extent of the damage, her arm was lying across her chest and although Madame would have fixed the bone there was still a long jagged scar down the side of her arm still pink. Her face was covered in tiny scars and there was a fast spreading bruise across her cheek, her forehead was swelling in purple bulbs and there was a faint hint of blood stain on the bottom of her nose. She didn't look as bad as she must have when they brought her in. I knew she must have been in so much pain because of her clothes. They were covered in blood thick black and red stains, dust had mixed with the blood so some of her clothes were a dark grey colour. "They will be awake by the end of the day apparently." I was surprised to see that it was Malfoy who had said it, there was blood still spread across the side of his face but his nose was back to its usual pale pointy self. He was sat opposite me holding her hand. Now don't get me wrong, I hate the slimy bastard but there was a little bit at the back of my mind that could understand why Frea put up with him. I hate to admit it but it seems he really cared.

HARRYS POV

I could see Ron taking in what I had seen. This was my second time down this morning as Ron had still been getting up when I was in the common room and Magonagal came in and told me. I thought that must have been what I had looked like too. I was now sat with a pretty Ravenclaw called Bella, that sounds bad but she was the one that found them. She had been walking around the school at 6 in the morning, apparently she did it every day to find new passage ways. She was shaking as I sat by her, from Hermione and Frea's clothes I could see how much blood there would have been and I knew that what she had seen would have been enough to make her nauseous. She was crying into my shoulder at the moment. She had never even met me, didn't care that I was Harry Potter the boy who lived, at that point I was just someone who had asked if she was ok. I knew how this felt. Eventualy she looked up and saw Krum, Malfoy and Ron "Don't… don't you want to join them?" she asked me. I looked down at her, she was still red with tears although she had now stopped crying, I gave her a tissue and said "no I think they should take it all in. I was here first remember? It takes a while to get used to. Seeing them like that, I'm used to it, it follows me I guess, the pain, the blood. It's not the same for them. First time." I was talking rubbish, she couldn't possibly understand but I had t try and explain. "I know." She said "what?" I said, seriously? She got that? "yeah I know, how would I know? Little no body. My mum she died when I was 4, death eaters. My brother lost his legs too, he was in the room with her, he was 7 and when the roof collapsed his legs just snapped." I just stared at her "wow" she shrugged "It happens, you have to carry on." She looked back at the guys. "so the Slytherins with her. Krums with Granger. Who is Weasly seeing?" it was a good point . I hadn't thought about it. Ron loved both of them, he was there for both but I knew what she meant. He couldn't stay with both of them. He couldn't be waiting for both. Who was he there for? Who's hand did he want to be holding? Who was going to wake up looking into his eyes?


End file.
